In the zone calories.

[Jpaige324]

Hi, so right now I'm trying to lose baby weight. I have my goal set as 2 lbs a week. I eat healthy and have cut out unhealthy snacks. My worst thing right now that I'm working on is a serving of sugar in my coffee. I'm "in the zone" right now. 1356 cals in, 2253 out. However I want to go to the gym and won't be eating anymore tonight. I usually start on the stair master and burn 300 calories before moving on to my next thing. This will put me under my goal, as usual. I'm struggling to lose weight but can't believe that I shouldn't work out when in the zone even though I know diet is 80% of weight loss. Any insight to this? 

[ThatGreen]

It's very hard for me to give you concrete advice without knowing any of your stats or how you track your intake, but I'll give you some general pointers.
If you're nursing your baby, it's not generally adviced to have a very high deficit, since your body needs the fuel to keep creating baby fuel.

Your goal of 2lbs/wk is already very agressive (and is most often used by those who have a lot to lose), but you seem to be stuggling with not eating enough. Having a higher deficit is fine for a day or two once in a while, but if it's becoming a habit it can get dangerous and means you have to find ways to take in more calories. You really need the fuel, especially if you're working out.
The best way to increase your calorie consumption without eating too much extra is by adding some good fats. Oils, nuts or the famous avocado are great sources.

To stay "in the zone", you might have to pre-think what you eat in accordance to what you expect to burn on any given day. If you plan to burn 3000 calories, you should be eating 2000 (for ~2lbs/wk).
I would also advice you to have something small to eat after your workout to replenish some used energy.

Hope this helps

PS. Mods, maybe move to Manage Weight board?

[Esya]

Welcome to the forums @Jpaige324. I have moved your post to manage weight, as you will get more replies and information regarding to your question there.

As stated by @ThatGreen it is hard to give advice without knowing more details. The first thing that might be helpful is to use this online calculator to establish your BMR. The BMR is the amount of calories you burn by simply being alive and breathing. It is advised not to eat less than that.

Ofcourse you can work out and eat back the calories burned. That way you end up in the zone again.

[Jpaige324]

Some more info: my bMR is 1443. I generally eat between 1200 and 1350 cals a day and burning between 2300-2800 depending on how long I worked out and how busy I was at work with moving. Also varies on weather, nice days I take my daughter out doer go on walks, play at the park etc. I'm not breastfeeding. I'm confused because I was in the zone for a long time without working out on any regular basis but wasn't losing weight even though my goal has been to lose weight. I'm not at a bad weight by any means but I carry all my extra weight in my stomach. Which I've always hated but getting married in a few months I want to tone that down.

[ThatGreen]

Since you don't have much to lose (less than 30lbs), I'd recommend changing your goal to 1lbs or so a week.
If you want to primarily tone up, strength training is prefered over cardio.

You say you're not losing weight despite a deficit though, so I'm really wondering how you log your food?

Also, what Fitbit are you using and how are you logging your exercise?

[Esya]

@Jpaige324

I suggest you try to eat more, maybe 1500 calories. That way you provide your body with enough calories that it uses just for being alive (more than 1443) while still eating at a deficit. You could change your goal to medium instead of hard, which puts it on a 750 calories deficit. Then your green zone will be closer to 1500 calories when you burn 2300. You can then still decide if you want to eat back more when you burn 2800 calories.

[Jpaige324]

I just look at calories of everything I eat and make sure I log everything. The things we make for dinner or whatever if I can't find a recipe with the calories known then I add each ingredient on it's own with how much of it I'm eating.



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[ThatGreen]

Do you measure it using a scale or do you eyeball/estimate?

[SevenAteNine]

What was your starting weight and what's your current and goal weight? When's your wedding?

[Jpaige324]

I use a scale (meat, yogurt, fruit) or count (like for peanuts)



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[DavidSchneier]

I found that the estimated calorie burn provided by FitBit was off by approximately 600 calories for me. After abundant research and factoring in that I have hypothyroidism, I decided to deduct 600 from whatever FitBit gave me credit for burning and used that number to track my consumption and deficit.

Also, and this was an important adjustment, I realized that I was consuming additional calories beyond what I recorded, sometimes as much as 200-300 (tasting things while cooking, drinking an iced coffee, etc.). At the end of each day I now make a manual adjustment based on the little things and I find my numbers are much more reliable.

[Jpaige324]

How did you figure out the 600 calorie difference?



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